FFRF awarded Elias $2,500.

By Elias Abadi

I am a part of a movement aimed at stopping contradictions — contradictions that state Jesus preached love, kindness and grace while his followers currently preach hate, selfishness and shame. Contradictions that glorify charity missions to poorer nations while turning their backs on the starving and poor living right next door. Contradictions that ask you to believe and place trust in a system that breeds abuse and sexual assault of its youth.

Generation Z is rejecting the contradictions surrounding religion. In America, religion is used as a cudgel against the marginalized, those with the fewest protections in society. It was used to justify mass hysteria against those groups, such as the slaughtering of Salem “witches,” the “satanic panic” of the 1980s, and the current-day hysteria around transgender rights.

In our increasingly diverse society, it seems odd that the teachings of religion have become disfavored. Jesus preached to love thy neighbor, not to wield fear’s might. Yet, Jesus alone isn’t stopping the hate crimes, stopping the hateful Republican legislation or stopping the widespread child abuse happening in churches across the world. The teachings of Jesus ring hollow when they are twisted and abused by so many without accountability.

Religion has become a tool of oppression — a tool used to produce complacency. You are asked to believe in astonishing feats of God by foolishly placing your trust in storytellers who have no interest in your financial or physical well-being.

Generation Z is fed up with the harmful effects of religion on our lives. It has become an all-encompassing public toxin free from taxation or accountability — all while filling its coffers with donations. This rebellion from religion is bound to be positive in numerous ways, especially for marginalized people. Conversations around poverty and homelessness can be focused on the economic reality of the impoverished instead of a detached and ahistorical lens of sins and sinners. While promising, the service work done by religious organizations has done little to fix the lack of social mobility in America. However, many policy-based organizations and grassroots movements have recently identified and researched systemic issues plaguing our institutions as the root cause of many social ills.

The beneficial effects extend beyond simply service work. Religious legal crusades have eroded the distinctions between church/state and minority rights simultaneously. As society shifts away from a dogmatic lens of religion, citizens will feel empowered to use their voices and leverage economic boycotts against discriminatory companies. They can enshrine stringent protections for a secular government. Eventually, shifts in public opinion will catch up to the Supreme Court, and hopefully, nonreligious citizens will be able to enjoy their rights once again.

Freedom from religion should not come at a cost. Sadly, LGBTQ-plus individuals are turned away from public accommodations, women are denied life-saving abortions and contraception, and immuno-compromised people must interact with unvaccinated religious individuals. We cannot become cynical enough to the current legal landscape that treats religious liberty with the utmost respect while stepping all over the Establishment Clause.

The social justice rebellion against institutions of oppression sweeps broadly, including religion. As our society progresses, the need for organized religion that teaches conformity and blind obedience will be gone. In its place, a new form of communal network will take place — one that involves all people of different races, classes and incomes. I hope our current rebellion against religious contradictions morphs into a lasting infrastructure for social change. The threat to freedom from religion remains ever-present, but this time, we will be equipped to confront it.

Elias, 22, is from Bakersfield, Calif., and attends University of Southern California, where he is majoring in public policy. “I have been president of the Undergraduate Moot Court Program, where I won multiple speaker awards and qualified for the national tournament three times,” Elias writes. “I am also the editor-in-chief for USC’s premier undergraduate law review and a senior editor of another interdisciplinary journal.”